: Does a repository of analytical breakdowns of stories exist? I'm a data scientist and for my next project I'm looking for a location where I can find stories broken down by structure. I.e.

Vote Up Vote Down

Have you tried TV Tropes? It is a wiki which describes story "tropes" (i.e. the various narrative elements, tricks and occasional fails of the storytelling art). It is vast and has a loose but fairly well defined structure; tropes are organised by category and are extensively hyperlinked. Works, creators and genres are also given, with lots of links explaining how different tropes are used in different works.

Since you ask about plot structure you might like to start here.

I've always thought that a machine-learning project with TV Tropes as its input would be seriously interesting, so let us know what happens.

Warning: It is also an infinite time sink.

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

You are asking if there is a database where scholars are turning art, which is subjective in it's very nature, into a science. You do realize what you're asking is probably in some back corner of the net, if at all.

As libli had said, there are furious debate on many different works of art, and especially writing, because it can be as complicated or as simple as the person thinks of it. There is no right or wrong answer, no definitive analysis that comes out on top. Just different people's opinions on their take on some constructs they made to try and quantify the meaning on the author's work.

So, there may be one or two of what you seek, but art is subjective. You can't get a definitive answer from any such database because art is purely subjective. Hope this helps.

(0)